Question about Apache Logs

Reading Apache Log

[erobs]

I have recently noticed a large amount of logs similar to the following. They do not seem to be viewing anything other than the one page, and do not load images like if I were to visit the page. Any thoughts on why I am seeing this?

This is not a credit, loan, or financial website.

222.108.199.142 - - [28/Jan/2006:20:24:45 -0500] "GET / HTTP/1.1" 200 16686 "http://car-insurance.example.com/" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; Maxthon)"
199.2.119.62 - - [28/Jan/2006:20:25:18 -0500] "GET / HTTP/1.1" 304 - "http://low-apr-credit-card.example.com/" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 4.01; AOL 4.0; Windows 98)"
202.29.136.140 - - [28/Jan/2006:20:25:19 -0500] "GET / HTTP/1.0" 304 - "http://experian.example.com/" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; Maxthon)"
211.48.24.218 - - [28/Jan/2006:20:26:17 -0500] "GET / HTTP/1.1" 304 - "http://free-credit-reports.example.com/" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 4.01; Windows NT Windows CE)"
216.154.243.212 - - [28/Jan/2006:20:26:54 -0500] "GET / HTTP/1.0" 200 16686 "http://car-insurance.example.com/" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1)"
210.91.189.208 - - [28/Jan/2006:20:27:42 -0500] "GET / HTTP/1.1" 304 - "http://low-apr-credit-card.example.com/" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 4.01; Windows NT)"
218.232.252.31 - - [28/Jan/2006:20:27:56 -0500] "GET / HTTP/1.1" 304 - "http://free-credit-reports.example.com/" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; Maxthon)"
165.229.159.240 - - [28/Jan/2006:20:30:03 -0500] "GET / HTTP/1.1" 304 - "http://current-mortgage-rates.example.com/" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.2; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)"
84.204.192.179 - - [28/Jan/2006:20:30:55 -0500] "GET / HTTP/1.1" 200 16686 "http://payday-loans.example.com/" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1)"
219.239.110.9 - - [28/Jan/2006:20:31:29 -0500] "GET / HTTP/1.1" 304 - "http://loans.example.com/" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.5; Windows NT 5.0)"

They are pulling my default main page, but nothing else it would appear. Thanks for any help.

[edited by: Receptional at 8:18 pm (utc) on Jan. 29, 2006]
[edit reason] Examplified the domains [/edit]

[encyclo]

It's log spam - (ab)using the referrer field to generate a link to their site in the hope that the stats package for your site in publically available, thus creating a set of backlinks. The process is automated and deployed on a massive scale.

Apart from throwing off your stats and wasting your bandwidth allocation, the presence of log spam is harmless if your stats package is password-protected.

[JerryOdom]

Thats an interesting tactic that I'm suprised to say I hadn't seen used before.

[Dijkgraaf]

Log Spam has been around for a few years now, maybe you were just lucky not to have been hit by it so far.

[erobs]

Thank you encyclo. I appreciate the information. My stats are not publically available, so I guess I will just have to live with it as the links are coming from so many different ips.